Monday, September 19, 2016

Those in Donald Trump’s orbit appear to be nervous about the swirling scandal around the Trump Foundation—and they should be: The stakes are incredibly high.

The allegations of a quid pro quo between Trump and Florida Attorney General, improper use of the charity for personal benefit, and employment of the charity for political purposes have serious penalties beyond mere campaign optics—the possible consequences range from hefty fines to jail time.

The last seven days has been all bad news on the Trump Foundation front: House Democrats have publicly sought a Justice Department investigation into the charity, while left-leaning watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington alleged that Trump appeared to have bribed Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi by giving her a $25,000 contribution so that she would not join a lawsuit against Trump University.

And a New York Times investigation this past week showed that Trump had personally signed the check that constituted the illegal campaign contribution from his charity to Bondi.

Add this to a dose of personal animosity: New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman told CNN this week that “we have been looking into the Trump Foundation to make sure it’s complying with the laws governing charities in New York.” The Trump camp already despises Schneiderman due to his legal crusade on the controversial Trump University business.

“This reaches above a distraction for them due to the legal implications of it and long litigation possibility,” a former senior aide to Trump said. “Look, Donald signed those checks… he’s on there. He’s liable.”

In the interest of fairness and balance I have to point out that Hillary Clinton's emails showed that people who donated to her family charity would call up and try to get meetings or favors and they wouldn't get them. Just so you know. If you 'd like the details there are approximately 8,532 articles about that and every anchor and pundit have talked about the "gross" nature of the appearance of the possibility of impropriety that never happened when she was Secretary of State years ago.

Donald Trump wasn't a professional politician when he bribed state AGs not to pursue his fraudulent business practices so we need to cut him a little slack. He can't be held to the same standard.

But anyway, do click over and read the whole thing. It's quite interesting. One might even think it's something the voters should take into account.